<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>attentive by monocots</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29376255">attentive</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/monocots/pseuds/monocots'>monocots</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Café, Feelings Realization, M/M, Pining, Slice of Life, probably takes place before the spring interhigh matches, student life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 06:21:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29376255</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/monocots/pseuds/monocots</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>attentive, n.</i> observant; thoughtful of others</p>
<p>Satori, Wakatoshi, a vocabulary list, and a change of pace from the usual student atmosphere at a little café 一 in which Satori sees his friend a little differently.</p>
<p>(For Valentendou Week Day 3: Café)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Valentendou Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>attentive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i have never written a fic for haikyuu in general, let alone for ushiten, but binging s3 in one day gave me a lot of shiratorizawa feels and i just love these two so damn much. i found out that valentendou week was a Thing pretty late, but i still wanted to contribute and crammed a short fic for it!</p>
<p>this is the third straight fic i’ve written that takes place in a café oops</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Let’s study out, Wakatoshi-kun,” Satori says, bumping elbows with him in the library. “I can’t focus in this old library at all!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is there anything wrong with the library?” Wakatoshi looks up from his textbook. His expression largely remains unchanged, except for the slightest quirk in his eyebrow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t you get bored studying here all the time?” Satori gestures at the grey walls and sharp-cornered bookshelves. “Like it’s too quiet, it’s almost creepy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi follows Satori’s gesture for a moment, then glances back at his friend. His expression softens, and he nods. “I do not mind the library at all, but I should not have trouble anywhere that isn’t noisy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Those words are enough for Satori to drag Wakatoshi out of the library and into the new café that has just opened a few blocks away from Shiratorizawa’s campus. Satori leads the way, navigating to a small shop in a corner; Wakatoshi does not resist, but falls in step.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The café interior is a stark contrast from the sterile atmosphere of the library; the walls are all exposed brick, lined with shelves of fake plants and framed prints of generic landscapes. The frames don’t even match, and neither do the chairs. A few other students are gathered at tables and studying on their own, murmuring to each other over their notes. Satori thinks the whole atmosphere is terribly amusing, and the scent of freshly brewed coffee instantly sends a jolt of energy through him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>great,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he exhales.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi gazes at him and lets out a satisfied hum.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They manage to cram themselves into a circular table. Their spread blends right into the rest of the café: a pile of textbooks stacked high, a jumble or notes and a copy of </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shounen Jump</span>
  </em>
  <span> snuck in, a coffee and a hot chocolate crammed in the space between the papers. Before long, Satori finds himself blabbing about the coverage for the English exam; thinking out loud helps him with something as frustrating as vocabulary. For each word he reads, he attaches an example to it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“‘Arduous’ - hard to accomplish, needs a lot of effort and persistence. Ah! That’s like studying for this exam! Or like a really bad five-set match. Yeah! Wakatoshi-kun, what do you think?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi is quiet for a while, thinking of things that are arduous. Satori wonders what he would find arduous, if he did at all; if he struggles with matches or with club practice, he makes no show of it. He just </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> things, especially on the court.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re right,” he says at last; his gaze travels from his notes up to Satori’s face. “But the matches are not as tiring as they used to be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, you get used to them, but the first matches are </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Satori sighs and slouches in his seat. “The vocab lists, too. But I guess they aren’t so bad when you’re studying with someone else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It is easier when you are coming up with examples for each word.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi states it plainly, but a slight smile plays at his lips. Satori simply shrugs. Coming from his friend, it’s not really a compliment or a jab, but a mere observation, but Satori can’t help but smile to himself as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He continues down the vocabulary list some more. Whenever he can, he pulls an example out of thin air, and Wakatoshi either voices his agreement or offers that it might mean something else. He seems to have an ear trained specifically for Satori’s exam-related rants, and he glances up at him at each new example. It turns out to be a productive method, especially as their voices (well, mostly Satori’s) blend into the background noise of the café, freed from the imposing quiet of a library.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Satori makes considerable progress through the list. He glances at the next word, close to the end: </span>
  <em>
    <span>attentive, n. observant; thoughtful of others.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi looks up at him once again, their eyes meeting, and his gaze seems to ask if anything is the matter. Satori feels as his heart gives an extra-loud thump, and he drops his head back down to his vocabulary list.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Attentive.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakatoshi himself is pretty attentive, Satori thinks. He doesn’t have to study vocabulary along with him, but he does. In fact, Satori likes it when he responds to his thoughts in a deep, low hum; or when his gaze leaves the textbook page for a moment to look up at him; or when his step naturally falls in with his own when they walk to class, to the gym, or to the dorms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Satori finds himself attending to Wakatoshi, too, in the moment. He looks a little funny in this new setting 一 his chair is too small for his solid frame, and his face is steeled in concentration as he reads through his textbook, as if trying to memorize every word on the page. There’s even a tinge of confusion at whatever he’s reading.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But there’s an odd comfort in seeing him this way. Wakatoshi looks… different. He still has a fraction of intensity he has on the court, but the whimsical air of the café grounds him. The afternoon light spills through the windows and on his frame, softening his features; the focus in his eyes seems to shine. Up close, among the odds and ends of the café, Satori does not see the powerful ace that their opponents fear across the net. He only sees someone willing to hop out of campus with him, and listen to his rambles, and smile a little at his remarks. He sees someone who attends to him. He sees a…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A partner? A friend? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Friend</span>
  </em>
  <span> doesn’t seem like an adequate word.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Again Wakatoshi’s eyes rove up to meet Satori’s, and again he feels that thump in his chest. He looks better this way, too. No matter what they are exactly, if Wakatoshi could always attend to him the way he does right now, with those eyes looking at him as if he were the only one in focus, then Satori could die happy.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you for reading! feel free to talk ushiten to me on <a href="https://twitter.com/monocots_">twitter</a> as well!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>